Читать бесплатно онлайн книгу The Pot of Caviare
A Pot of Caviare by J.C. Ledward & Arthur Conan Doyle
If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his plays, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court Of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also an exceptional writer of short stories of the horrific and macabre. Something very different from what you might expect.
Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than £10 (£700 today) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him.
Index of Contents
History of the Play
Cast of Characters
The Scene
The Play – A Pot of Caviare
Notes on Costumes, Etc
Arthur Conan Doyle – A Short Biography
Arthur Conan Doyle – A Concise Bibliography
HISTORY OF THE PLAY
Based on the short story published in The Strand Magazine, March 1908
First UK performance: London, May 1910
CAST OF CHARACTERS
PROFESSOR MERCER.
COLONEL HENRI RAMEAU (of the French Army).
JACK AINSLIE (of the Diplomatic Service).
MR. RALSTON (an Engineer on the Northern China Railway).
MR. PATTERSON (a Missionary).
MRS. PATTERSON (his Wife).
JESSIE PATTERSON (his Daughter).
Miss SINCLAIR (a Nurse at the Scottish Mission).
THE SCENE
The action of the play takes place in North China, during the "Boxer" risings of 1900.
A POT OF CAVIARE
The SCENE is an upper room of the Scottish Mission in the European Quarter of Ichau, which has been cut off and besieged by the Chinese "Boxer" rebels. It is the fifth day of the siege. A whitewashed room with sandbagged and screened window up stage c. A small wooden table E.c. and chairs R. and L. A trestle-table against the wall L. above door, with revolver, haversacks and field-glass case heaped on it, and under the table a wicker- hamper containing wine and a pot of caviare. A small medicine chest is on the table. Ammunition and other boxes are piled here and there. The room is untidy and Uttered with rubbish. Doors up R. and down L.
(When the CURTAIN rises AINSLIE is "sniping" from the window, with RALSTON on his right "spotting" through field-glasses. Both men are dirty and unshaven and are haggard with the strain of the siege. AINSLIE is a cheerful youth; RALSTON is a disillusioned pessimist of 45; his wrist is bandaged.)
(Distant rifle fire.)
RALSTON - (tense) Look out—
(AINSLIE fires.)
Got him. That's number 13 (adding another mark on wall).
AINSLIE - (reloading) That'll teach those yellow devils to keep their heads down.
RALSTON - Yes, for the moment, but the brutes push their sungars nearer every day. (Moving L. to trestle-table and speaking in a strained, hoarse voice.) We can just hold them as long as our ammunition lasts, but once that's gone, and at this rate there won't be a dozen rounds left by to-morrow, we shall be swamped. I was writing farewell letters half the night, just in case I didn't get another chance. The end may come at any moment.
AINSLIE - Don't you worry. The relief might be here to-night. The Colonel is quite confident— I heard him telling Mrs. Patterson this morning that the relief column must have started three days ago.
(Gunfire very faint in the distance.)
RALSTON - I don't know how the women stand the suspense; they've been magnificent, and old Patterson too: nothing seems to worry him, but I suppose he would regard martyrdom only as a glorious crown to his work here. Amazing point of view !
AINSLIE - (sardonically) The only thing that really worries old Patterson is the fear that the R.C. Padre may pinch some of his converts when they're in the trenches.
RALSTON - You're getting as cynical as I am. It's all this cursed siege.
(Gunfire in distance.)
Hullo! What's that? Don't you hear guns?
(Moving to window.)
AINSLIE - I've been thinking I heard gunfire on and off all the morning and the Boxers seem to have noticed something too. They were moving men back over the hill an hour ago.
(Gunfire again: louder.)
RALSTON - There it is again.
(Gunfire louder.)
(Enter JESSIE PATTERSON, E. She is 18 and pretty.)
JESSIE - (excitedly) Oh! Can that be gunfire? Are they really coming? Do you think we're saved, Mr. Ainslie?
AINSLIE - (coming to her) That's all right, Miss Patterson. I think the worst's over. You've been simply splendid all through.
(AINSLIE and JESSIE must show that they are attracted to each other.)
(RALSTON takes AINSLIE'S post at window.)
RALSTON - (at window) See here, AINSLIE - There's something doing in the Boxer lines: look at them streaming back over that hill like ants. There'll be no attack to-day.
AINSLIE - By Gad, man, I believe we're saved. Here's for a last shot. (He raises his rifle.)
RALSTON - (stopping him) No! I shouldn't trouble to speed the parting guest. They might change their minds and have another go at us. It's the relief force over the hill they're up against.
(Enter PROFESSOR MERCER R. He is a man crushed with the weight of tragedy.)
I must warn the Colonel.
PROFESSOR - (R.) He knows already. He has been watching them from the roof.
JESSIE - Oh! Isn't it wonderful, Professor Mercer? After all these dreadful days of waiting, it's almost too good to be true!
PROFESSOR - Too good to be true, yes. You look happy, Miss Jessie, and you deserve to be happy. The world lies at your feet and you find it good to be young. Once there was some one very dear to me, young and fair like you. Sometimes I think I see her in your eyes.
JESSIE - Who was she, Professor? A romance of yours?
(He winces.)
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.
PROFESSOR - She died many years ago. God keep you, my child, from such a fate as hers. (Moves C.)
(Guns again.)
(Enter PATTERSON and MRS. PATTERSON and Miss SINCLAIR L. PATTERSON is fussy and parsonical: his wife stout and comely.)
PATTERSON - (excitedly) Do you not hear the gunfire? That strong iron voice calling to us and bidding us be of good cheer for help is coming!
(Cries of "Is it true?" "I can't believe it!" "Thank God!" "Is the relief really coming?")
(Enter COLONEL RAMEAU L., a tall, alert, debonair Frenchman.)
MRS. PATTERSON - Colonel, do tell us what you think!
RAMEAU - (quietly and confidently, with a slight French accent) My friends, I think that all is well. The enemy are moving away from us to attack the relief column over the hills. It is their gunfire that we hear. If all goes well we should be relieved to-night.
JESSIE - How glorious! We must celebrate the occasion. Why, of course, I know. Professor, we must have a feast and finish that hamper of yours.
PROFESSOR - There is not much left. Two bottles of wine and— (he holds up the pot of caviare)— a pot of caviare.
AINSLIE - Yes, the pot of caviare. Professor, we must have that famous pot.
COLONEL - Surely now is the time, when the end of our peril is in sight?
Miss SINCLAIR - Why, yes, of course.
(They all join in the chorus.)
PROFESSOR - Better wait. They have still far to come.
RALSTON - They will be here for supper at the latest.
(Sitting on table R. while Miss SINCLAIR re-bandages his wrist.)
They cannot be more than ten miles from us now. If they only did two miles an hour it would make them due at seven.
COLONEL - There is a battle on the way. You must grant two or three hours for the battle.
AINSLIE - Not half an hour. They will walk through them as if they weren't there. What can these blackguards do with their matchlocks and swords against modern weapons?
COLONEL - It depends on who leads the column of relief. If they are fortunate enough to have a French Officer
RALSTON - An Englishman for my money.
PATTERSON - I should prefer a Scotsman.
(A laugh.)
AINSLIE - I don't see that it matters a toss. Messrs. Metford and Maxim are the two men who will see us through, and with them on our side no leader can go wrong. The enemy will simply melt away. So now, Professor, come on with that pot of caviare.
PROFESSOR - We shall reserve it for supper.
PATTERSON - After all, it will be a courtesy to our guests— the officers of the relief— if we have such a delicacy to set before them. I'm in agreement with the Professor that we reserve the caviare for supper.
AINSLIE - All right! I'm off to the church tower. I want to be the first to see the relief force come over the hill.
(AINSLIE goes out after the COLONEL has spoken to him.)
(PROFESSOR moves to go out, but is stopped by PATTERSON.)
PATTERSON - By the way, Professor, I was only hearing to-day that this is the second time you've been besieged like this. I'm sure we should be very interested to hear some details of your previous experience.
PROFESSOR - (reluctantly). I was in Sung Tong, in South China, in '89.
PATTERSON - What a strange coincidence that you should twice have been in so perilous a situation. Tell us how you were relieved at Sung Tong.
PROFESSOR - (after a pause). We were not relieved.
PATTERSON - What! The place fell?
PROFESSOR - Yes, it fell.
PATTERSON - And you came through alive?
PROFESSOR - I am a doctor as well as a naturalist. They had many wounded and so they spared me. (Trying to stop PATTERSON.)
PATTERSON - And the rest?
COLONEL - (hurriedly). Assez! Assez! I have been in China twenty years — I can guess.
PATTERSON - I am sorry. I can see that it is a painful subject. I should not have asked.
PROFESSOR - (pulling himself together) No. It is better not to speak about such things at all.
(Gunfire again.)
(Gunfire louder and distant rifle fire.)
Surely those guns are very much nearer?
(They all crowd to the window.)
PATTERSON - (to his wife) Come, my dear, let us go and thank God for our deliverance.
(They all go out except the COLONEL and the PROFESSOR.)
(PROFESSOR moves wearily R. and sits L. of table.)
COLONEL - (lighting a cigarette) Ma foi! My country will be proud of me. Who knows but that I may be given the Légion d'Honneur for this affair. "Defence of Ichau against the Boxers by Colonel Henri Rameau, late of the Chasseurs d'Afrique. Splendid resistance of small garrison against overwhelming odds." It will certainly be in the Paris papers.
PROFESSOR - (coldly) You think we are saved?
COLONEL - (right of table R.) Why, Professor, I have seen you more excited on the day when you discovered that new beetle of yours.
PROFESSOR - The beetle was safe in my collecting- box first. I have seen so many strange turns of fate in my life that I do not grieve, nor do I rejoice until I know that I have cause. But you do not agree with me?
COLONEL - Well, I'll stake my military reputation that all is well. They must be advancing swiftly: the firing has died down to show that resistance is at an end, and within an hour we'll see them over the brow. Ainslie is to fire his rifle three times from the church tower as a signal, and then we shall make a little sally on our own account. (Slaps his holster.)
PROFESSOR - And you are waiting for this signal?
COLONEL - Yes, we are waiting for AINSLIE's shots. (Looks round.) I thought I would stay behind, for I had something to ask you.
PROFESSOR - What was it?
COLONEL - Well, you remember your talk about the other siege— the siege of Sung Tong. It interests me very much from a professional point of view. Now that the ladies and civilians are gone you will have no objection to discussing it.
PROFESSOR - It is not a pleasant subject. (Turning away with a shudder.)
COLONEL - I know that. Mon Dieu! It was indeed a tragedy. But you have seen how I have conducted the defence here. Was it wise? Was it good? Was it worthy of the traditions of the French Army?
PROFESSOR - I think you could have done no more.
COLONEL - I thank you. But this other place, was it as ably defended? To me, a comparison of this sort is intensely interesting. Could it have been saved?
PROFESSOR - No. Everything possible was done— excepting one thing
COLONEL - Ah! there was an omission! What was it?
PROFESSOR - (with growing horror) No one— above all no woman — should have been allowed to fall alive into the hands of the Chinese.
COLONEL - You are right: a thousand times right. But do not think that this has escaped my thoughts. For myself, I would die fighting, so would Ralston— so would AINSLIE— I have talked to them and it is settled. But the others, I have spoken with them, but what can you do? There are the priest, and the missionary, and the women—
PROFESSOR - Would they wish to be taken alive?
COLONEL - They would not promise to take steps to prevent it. (Sarcastically.) Their consciences would not permit them to take their own lives. Of course it is all over now and we need not speak of such dreadful things. But what would you do in my place?
PROFESSOR - (steadily) Kill them!
COLONEL - (looking fixedly at the PROFESSOR) Mon Dieu! You would murder them?
PROFESSOR - (in agony) In mercy I would kill them. Man, I have been through it. I have seen the death by the hot eggs: I have seen the death by the boiling kettle: I have seen the women My God! I wonder that I have ever slept sound again. My own daughter— was one of the victims. (A pause.) I was strapped to a stake with thorns in my eyelids to keep them open, but my grief at their agony was a less thing than my self-reproach when I realized that I could have snatched them at the last instant from the hands of their tormentors. (He rises to his feet.) Murder? I am ready to stand at the Divine Bar of Judgment and answer for a thousand murders such as that. Sin! Why, it is such an act as might well cleanse the stain of real sin from the soul. But if, knowing what I know, I should have failed this second time to do it, then by God there is no hell deep enough or hot enough for my guilty craven spirit. (He sinks down again and buries his face in his hands.)
COLONEL - (rising and putting his hand on the PROFESSOR'S shoulder) I am with you. You are a brave strong man, and know your own mind. Ma foi! You would have been my great help had things gone the other way. I have often wondered in the dark, early hours of the morning, but I did not know how (Trying to be cheerful.) But we should have heard AINSLIE's signal by now. I will go and see.
(He hurries out L., and the PROFESSOR is left sitting at the table with his head buried in his hands. After a while he rises, goes to the table by the wall, and loads a revolver, then puts it down helplessly, from the medicine chest picks up a blue phial full of white powder and examines it carefully: finally he searches in the hamper and brings out the pot of caviare. Puts both back with a shudder and goes to the window and looks out.)
(A noise of hurried steps and enter COLONEL RAMEAU. He is ghastly white and pants with exhaustion. He leans against the door.)
PROFESSOR - (coming to C.) Well! They are not coming?
COLONEL - No, they cannot come.
PROFESSOR - (after a pause) Do they all know?
COLONEL - No one knows but me.
PROFESSOR - How did you learn?
COLONEL - (with hoarse gasps) When I left you I went out to AINSLIE's post; as I passed the postern gate down below I heard knocking. I opened it: it was a Christian Tartar badly cut about with swords— he had been sent from the battle by the Commander of the Relief. They have been checked, and have exhausted most of their ammunition. Three days must pass before reinforce- ments can come, and they can advance. That was all. Mon Dieu! it was enough. (Moves totteringly to table and sits L. of it.)
PROFESSOR - Where is the messenger?
COLONEL - He died from loss of blood. His body lies at the postern gate.
PROFESSOR - And no one else saw him?
COLONEL - Not to speak to.
PROFESSOR - Oh! they did see him, then?
COLONEL - AINSLIE must have seen him from the church tower. He must know that I have had tidings of the battle. If I tell him they must all know.
PROFESSOR - How long can we hold out?
COLONEL - An hour or two at the most. We cannot repel another attack. As a soldier I know it.
PROFESSOR - (dully) Then it is absolutely certain we must fall? There is no hope for us?
COLONEL - None!
(There is a murmur of voices and footsteps outside and enter AINSLIE L., RALSTON, PATTERSON and the rest, eager for news. As they enter the PROFESSOR moves to prevent the COLONEL being seen.)
AINSLIE - You've had news, Colonel?
(The COLONEL tries to speak, but fails.)
PROFESSOR - (advancing and taking command of the situation. He screens the COLONEL with his body from the others) Colonel Rameau has just been telling me It is all right. The relief force have halted, but they will be here in the early morning. There is no longer any danger.
(Cheers, exclamations and handshaking all round.)
RALSTON - But suppose they rush us before to-morrow morning? What infernal fools those fellows are not to push on.
AINSLIE - It's all safe. The Boxers have had a bad knock. I've seen their wounded being carried over the hill by dozens. They won't attack before morning after such losses— will they, Colonel?
(The COLONEL rises slowly to his feet during AINSLIE'S speech.)
COLONEL - (pulling himself together) No, no! It is certain that nothing can happen for the present. None the less, get back to your posts. We must give no point away.
(The group disperses.)
PROFESSOR - (after glancing at the COLONEL) Meanwhile I invite you all to a little supper-party to celebrate our deliverance. I think the time has come to open that pot of caviare. Let us meet here after sunset.
(Cries of "We will!" "Good for you, Professor!" "Don't forget the wine," "It will be delightful," etc.)
(They all troop out cheerfully L.)
(The COLONEL and the PROFESSOR solemnly shake hands.)
COLONEL - I leave it in your hands.
(The CURTAIN falls to mark the lapse of several hours.)
(When the CURTAIN rises again, the trestle-table has been moved from the wall and is now set in the centre of the stage. The PROFESSOR and the COLONEL have taken the two ends L. and R. respectively, with JESSIE PATTERSON on the PROFESSOR'S right. It is night outside. Much noise and chatter as the CURTAIN goes up. Everybody is cheerful and jolly except the COLONEL and the PROFESSOR.)
(Miss SINCLAIR and AINSLIE move up to side table L. and fetch more wine, etc.)
PROFESSOR - (nervously— to JESSIE) You don't like my little delicacy, Miss Jessie? It is a disappointment to me when I had kept it for you. I beg that you will eat the caviare. You have hardly touched it.
JESSIE - I can't bear its nasty salt taste. But never mind, perhaps I shall get to like it in time.
PROFESSOR - (pressing her) Well, you must make a beginning. Why not start to educate your taste? Do, to please me!
JESSIE - (with a laugh) Why, how earnest you are! I had no idea you were so polite, Professor Mercer. Even if I don't eat it I can be just as grateful.
PROFESSOR - (hardening) You are foolish not to eat it. I tell you it is worse than foolish not to eat the caviare to-night.
JESSIE - But why?
PROFESSOR - Because you have it on your plate. Because it is a shame to leave it. MRS. PATTERSON. There! there! don't trouble her any more. I can see that she doesn't like it. But it shan't be wasted. (She signals for JESSIE'S plate to be passed.) Make your mind easy, Professor.
(The PROFESSOR is lost in thought and his face is haggard.)
RALSTON - What will you do yourself for a holiday, Mr. Patterson?
PATTERSON - Well, I'll take three months in Edinburgh to attend the Annual Meeting, and you'll be glad to do some shopping in Princes Street, Mary — and you, Jessie, shall see some folk your own age. Then we can come back in the autumn, when our nerves have had a rest.
Miss SINCLAIR - (who has been filling the wine-glasses and is now standing behind AINSLIE) Indeed, we shall all need it. You know this long strain takes me in the strangest way. At the present moment I've got such a buzzing in my ears.
(A significant pause.)
AINSLIE - Well, that's funny, for its just the same with me. An absurd up-and-down buzzing as if a drunken bluebottle was experimenting with his register.
(A laugh.)
(RALSTON rises and goes to side table, relieving Miss SINCLAIR.)
As you say, it must be due to nervous strain. For my part, I am going back to Peking and I hope I may get some promotion over this affair. I can get good polo there and that's as fine a change as I know. How about you, Ralston?
RALSTON - (coming back to table and yawning) Oh! I don't know. I've hardly had time to think. I want to have a real good sunny holiday and forget it all. It's funny to see all those farewell letters in my room. Things looked so bad on Wednesday night that I'd settled up all my affairs and written to my friends. Heaven knows how they would have been delivered, but I trusted to luck. I think I'll keep those papers as a souvenir. They will always remind me of how close a shave I have had.
COLONEL - (grimly) Yes, I would keep them.
AINSLIE - What is it, Colonel? You sound in the blues to-night.
COLONEL - No, I am quite content.
RALSTON - Well! So you should be when you see success in sight. I am sure we are all indebted to you for your science and skill. We couldn't possibly have held the place without you. Ladies and gentlemen (he rises to his feet), I ask you to drink the health of Colonel Rameau of the French Army.
(They all rise and pledge the COLONEL with cries "a vous," "a votre santé, mon Colonel," etc.)
COLONEL - (struggles to rise, then stands gripping the table. He speaks in a dull even voice) I have always tried to do my duty. I do not think that more could have been done. If things had gone wrong with us and the place had fallen, you would, I am sure, have freed me from any blame or responsibility.
PATTERSON - (burning to hear his own voice} I'm voicing the sentiments of the company, Colonel Rameau, when I say—
(RALSTON drops his chin on his chest and is still.)
But Lord save us! What's amiss with Mr. Ralston?
(He bends over him.)
PROFESSOR - (hurriedly) Don't mind him. We are suffering from reaction now. I have no doubt that we are all liable to collapse. It is only to-night that we shall understand what we have escaped.
MRS. PATTERSON - I'm sure I can fully sympathize with him. I don't know when I have felt more sleepy. I can hardly hold my head up. If you'll excuse me, Professor Mercer, I think I'll go to my room.
(Her husband helps her to the door R.)
(Miss SINCLAIR follows her out.)
PATTERSON - (wiping his forehead with his handkerchief) Well! I've never known Mary do that before— falling asleep over her supper. But the air does seem unusually hot and heavy. I think that I shall turn in early myself.
AINSLIE - (rises, glass in hand, excitedly) I think that we ought to have one drink all round and then sing "Auld Lang Syne." For a week we have all pulled in the same boat and we've got to know each other as people never do in the quiet days of peace. We've learned to appreciate each other and we've learned to appreciate each other's nationality. There's the Colonel here stands for France— then there's the Professor for America, and Ralston and I are Britishers. (He puts his hand to his head.) Then there's the ladies, God bless them! They've been angels of mercy and compassion all through the siege. I think we should drink the health of the ladies.
(The COLONEL'S head falls back against his chair.)
(AINSLIE passes his hand across his eyes. He begins to sway slightly.)
Wonderful thing— the quiet courage, the patience, the— what shall I say?— the fortitude, the— by George, look at the Colonel! He's gone to sleep too— most infernal sleepy weather (He sways and falls forward across the table, dropping his glass, which smashes.)
PATTERSON - (springing to his feet and staring wildly) This isn't natural! Jessie! Why are they all asleep? (Gazing at RALSTON.) Is it sleep? Is it death? Open the windows! Help! Help! Help! (His voice chokes and he tears at his collar. He staggers to the window, but falls half-way.)
JESSIE - (who has risen with her father and gazes horror-struck round the table) Professor Mercer! What is it? What is it? (She looks closely at the nearest figure, rushes to her father, then turns to the PROFESSOR.) Oh, my God! They are dying! They are dead!
PROFESSOR - (follows her feebly, stumbling in his speech) My dear child — we would have spared you this— it would have been painless — it was hyocin— I put it in the caviare and you would not take it.
JESSIE - (screams) Ah! You monster! You devil! You have poisoned them!
PROFESSOR - No! No! I have saved them. You don't know the Chinese. They are fiends! In another hour we should all have been taken. And then— And then—
(Firing breaks out close at hand.)
(He points to the pot of caviare frantically.) Take it now, child. For God's sake. (He staggers to the door and leans against it, feebly trying to bar the entry.)
(Footsteps and sounds of splintering wood.)
They're coming. Quick! Quick! We may cheat them yet.
(More firing and noises off. He turns to find she has fainted over the table. The noises grow louder. Trampling of footsteps. He staggers to the table and seizes a knife, then drags himself to stab her. As he raises his knife — loud whistles and cries of "Cease fire." "Where are you?" — a short pause— then the door is thrown open and an English Officer appears. He stops aghast as he surveys the scene. The knife drops from the PROFESSOR'S hand and with his last breath he croaks out:)
Too late Don't touch the caviare. (Then falls in a heap.)
CURTAIN.
NOTES ON COSTUMES, ETC.
RALSTON and AINSLIE should be dressed in riding-breeches or trousers and shirts with bandoliers. They should carry rifles and look unshaved and dishevelled. They are smartened up and wear coats for the supper scene.
The COLONEL should be in French Colonial uniform of the period, khaki drill with képi or sun-hat, revolver in holster, but no sword.
The PROFESSOR and PATTERSON in old clothes of the semi-tropical variety.
The ladies should be dressed in summer costumes of the 1900 period, and MRS. PATTERSON or Miss SINCLAIR or both can be dressed as hospital nurses.
The English Officer and Orderlies who appear immediately before the fall of the curtain can either be in Indian cavalry uniforms or in English naval kit. They must not be mentioned in the Programme.
The parts of MRS. PATTERSON and Miss SINCLAIR can be blended and played by one performer if necessary.
Arthur Conan Doyle - A Short Biography
The Scottish physician and writer Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle’s name is inseparable from the phenomenon of Sherlock Holmes, undoubtedly his greatest character and the eponymous meticulous, deductive and frankly genius hero of crime fiction. However, his prolific writing was in more than just the crime fiction genre; alongside the 56 short stories and 4 novels of Sherlock Holmes he explored science fiction and fantasy as well as plays, historical novels and poetry. Another of Conan Doyle’s notable characters is Professor Challenger, whose aggression and dominance serves as the antithesis of Holmes, and demonstrates Conan Doyle’s capacious imagination and dramatic skill. Returning to his name, it is worthy of note that there is uncertainty surrounding his surname; while he is often referred to as Conan Doyle, where Conan and Doyle are treated as a compound surname, the entry at his baptism records Arthur Ignatius Conan as first names, and Doyle as a solitary last. Indeed, his father’s name was simply Doyle. Moreover, the catalogues of the British Library and the Library of Congress insist of Doyle as his surname. Regardless, he began to refer to himself as Conan Doyle and his second wife would take this as her surname, so he will herein be referred to as Conan Doyle, in accordance with his apparent preference.
He was born in Edinburgh at 11 Picardy Place on 22nd May 1859 to his parents Charles Altamont Doyle, an Englishman of Irish descent, and Mary (née Foley), an Irishwoman, who had married in 1855. He had a brother named Innes. Charles was developing an alcohol dependence which would become incompatible with family life, and they dispersed in 1864 at which point the children were temporarily housed at various addresses across Edinburgh. They reunited in 1867, only to live together at 3 Sciennes place in a squalid tenement flat. Fortunately for the children, they had wealthy uncles who were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing. Accordingly at the age of nine Conan Doyle was sent to Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, a Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school. He was here for the two years between 1868 and 1870 at which point he went on to Stonyhurst College where he stayed until 1875 when he went for a year to Stella Matutina, Jesuit school in Feldkirch, Austria.
This school education set him up for a place at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied medicine between 1876 and 1881. Part of his course involved placements in Aston, (now a suburb of Birmingham, though at the time it was its own town), Sheffield and in Ruyton-XI-Towns, an unusually named village in Shropshire which acquired its numeral when, in the twelfth century, a castle was built there which became the focus of eleven small and disparate communities. It was during this study that he began writing short stories, with the successful submission of ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’ to Blackwood’s Magazine arguably his greatest literary achievement at the time. As well as this recognition, he saw his first published piece ‘The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley’, a story set in South Africa, printed on 6th September 1879 in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, and only 17 days later his first non-fiction article was published in the British Medical Journal on 20th September, entitled ‘Gelsemium as poison’. Having finished his studies he took an appointment as a Doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and then, following his graduation, he assumed the role of ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba during its 1881 voyage to the West African coast.
1882 saw his move to Plymouth where he joined the medical practice of former classmate George Turnavine Budd, though they had a difficult professional relationship and Conan Doyle left shortly thereafter in order to set up his own independent practice. Having arrived in Portsmouth in June of that year and disembarked the SS Mayumba with a mere £10 (£700 today) to his name, he proceeded to establish his practice at 1 Bush Billas in Elm Grove, Southsea, a seaside town in the country of Hampshire. He was not met with initial success, and in order to pass the time between visits from patients he resumed his story writing. During this period he completed his first novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, though it was not published until 1888, and the unfinished Narrative of John Smith, which only recently saw publication in 2011. Alongside these longer works was the steady production of a portfolio of short stories which included ‘The Captain of the Pole-Star’ and ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’, both inspired by the time he spent at sea. Meanwhile, in 1885 he completed a doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis, the slow degradation and demyelination of the sensory neurons that carry afferent information. He also married Louisa Hawkins, who was the sister of one of his patients, that same year. However, two years after this marriage he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though he maintained a platonic relationship with her out of respect for and loyalty to his wife for whom he still had great affection.
Though he struggled to find a publisher for the stories he wrote in these stretches of inactivity, his literary career would take an historic turn in 1886 when, on 20th November, Ward Lock & Co offered Conan Doyle £25 for all rights to A Study In Scarlet. The first and one of the most famous of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, it introduced the public to a new, empirical and methodical mode of crime fiction, and indeed criminality itself, by the combination of a perspicacious, brilliantly observant and data-driven detective whose army doctor companion Watson provided further scientific support as well as a means of observing and narrating Holmes’s processes and adventures. The novel was a success; a letter from Robert Louis Stevenson who had acquired a copy of the novel in Samoa, wrote with “[his] compliments on your very ingenious very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, while noting the similarity between Holmes’s methods and a certain Joseph Bell, upon whom Holmes was based. Conan Doyle even wrote to Bell explaining so, and that “round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man”. It was met with positive reviews in The Scotsman and The Herald and this success encouraged Ward Lock & Co to commission a sequel, The Sign of Four, which appeared in Lippincott’s Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. On 28th January 1889 his first child was born, Mary Louise, and three years later on 15th November 1892 they had a boy, Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, who became known only as Kingsley.
Now that he had a family to look after, he began to look more closely at the arrangement he had with his publishers and Conan Doyle soon began to feel that, as a new, inexperienced writer, he had been somewhat exploited by them, resolving to curtail his involvement with their business and instead beginning to write for the Strand Magazine from his home at 2 Wimpole Street. Meanwhile Conan Doyle was enjoying something of a sporting career, playing under the pseudonym A.C. Smith as goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club (though this club had no connection to present-day Portsmouth F.C, founded two years after Conan Doyle’s amateur side disbanded in 1896). He was also a keen cricketer and played ten first-class matches between 1899 and 1907 for the Marylebone Cricket Club, making a highest score with the bat of 43 against London County. As an occasional bowler he only took one wicket in these ten matches, though it was W.G. Grace’s stumps which he hit; a notable triumph of the right arm. His sporting interests extended to golf, for which he was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex for 1910. He once even visited Rudyard Kipling at his farm in America, bringing with him a set of golf clubs and giving his fellow famous writer an extended two-day lesson.
He went to Vienna to study ophthalmology in 1890 before returning to London and setting up a practice as an ophthalmologist, though he recorded in his autobiography that not a single patient ever crossed his doorway. This left him with more time for his writing, though by now he was beginning to feel somewhat exhausted by Holmes and wrote to his mother in 1891 “I think of slaying Holmes ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things.” This was met with an entreaty from his mother of “you won’t! You can’t! You mustn’t!” These “better things” were his historical novels such as The White Company (1891) and The Great Shadow (1892). Then, in defiance of his mother and the wishes of the general public, in December 1893 he wrote Holmes’s apparent death in the clutches of a high-consequence brawl with arch-nemesis Moriarty above the Reichenbach Falls in Germany. Both of their deaths seemed certain, and it seemed the end of the Sherlock Holmes phenomenon. He now had time to focus on other work, most notably his pamphlet justifying the United Kingdom’s involvement with the Boer War, an involvement for which they were frequently and heavily criticised. The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct was widely translated after its publication in 1902, and was based to a certain extent on the time he had spent as a volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900. It was this and his book The Great Boer War, written in 1900, which he considered the reasons for his knighthood in 1902 by King Edward VII, and he was subsequently appointed Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey. In 1903 however, owing to the public demand of which he became increasingly aware after successive letters from fans pleading for the resurrection of their great hero, he seemingly brought Holmes back from the dead; in ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’, the first story for ten years, he reassures the reader that Holmes had merely arranged for his fall to appear fatal in order that his other enemies (particularly Colonel Sebastian Moran) might consider him dead also, whereas in reality he never falls at all. Fans were ecstatic and Conan Doyle continued to write Holmes stories.
His interest in politics piqued by the issues surrounding the Boer War, the interest he had in criminal justice which was so prominent in his crime fiction transferred to that of real-life and he became a fervent advocate of justice, investigating two closed cases of incorrect conviction. The first, in 1906, saw the shy half-British, half- Indian lawyer George Edalji exonerated for imprisonment for crimes of mutilation towards animals which he hadn’t committed. Though the police were convinced of their prosecution, the crimes continued even after he was imprisoned and Conan Doyle, analytical and methodical as his invention, proceeded to privately investigate the case and the outcome, Edalji’s acquittal, encouraged the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1907. Meanwhile his wife Louisa had been suffering from tuberculosis and died on the 4th July, and Conan Doyle married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, the woman with whom he had fallen in love in 1897, the year after. The second case of injustice was some twenty years later, though pertaining to a crime committed in 1908 allegedly by one Oscar Slater, a German Jew and gambling-den operator convicted of bludgeoning an 82 year old woman to death. Conan Doyle noticed inconsistencies in the evidence which, combined with his general sense of unease about the case, motivated him to pay for the majority of Slater’s legal fees and eventually see him released in 1928.
He now had his first child with Jean, whom they named Denis Percy Stewart and was born on 17th March 1909, and then on 19th November 1910 they had Adrian Malcolm. Jean Lena Annette followed on 21st December 1912. Over the next few years there would be various deaths in his family. His first wife having already passed away, Kingsley was taken ill after complications of pneumonia following injury near the Somme in 1917. His two brothers-in-law also died, and after Kingsley’s condition worsened and he passed away on 28th October owing to the complications of his convalescence and his brother Innes, now Brigadier-General died of the same, Conan Doyle sank into a deep depression, eventually finding solace in Christian spiritualism. Despite the veracity of his writing, he was not free from misunderstanding. Convinced of the authenticity of five (now known to be) hoaxed photographs of fairies by Elsie Wright in June 1917, he wrote a book The Coming of the Fairies in 1921 exploring them and other supernatural phenomena, followed up in 1926 by The History of Spiritualism, a broader look at the particulars of the movement. Encouraging the Spiritualists’ National Union to modify their precepts, his turn to spiritualism was so strong that he wrote a Professor Challenger novel on the subject, entitled The Land of Mist, in 1926.
His friendship with Harry Houdini, another noted Spiritualist, led him to believe that Houdini was possessed of supernatural powers and that his feats were not tricks but proof of the supernatural. He expresses this view in The Edge of the Unknown (1930), and Houdini’s inability to convince Conan Doyle of the illusory nature of his feats led to a bitter and very public falling-out. Conan Doyle has been posthumously implicated in the Piltdown Man hoax (and even accused of being its perpetrator by Richard Milner), a discovery of fossilised hominid remains which fooled the scientific world for over 40 years. Milner posits that Conan Doyle’s motive was revenge on the scientific establishment for their debunking of Houdini, and that within The Lost World which was released the year the remains were found contains several hidden and encrypted clues indicating his involvement.
On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in Crowborough, East Sussex, clutching his chest. He died of a heart attack at the age of 71, and his last words, directed to his wife, were “you are wonderful”. As a Spiritualist, his burial brought controversy as there was debate as to where he should properly be buried. Eventually he was interred on 11th July in Windlesham rose garden, though he was later removed and buried with his wife in Minstead churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire.
The epitaph on that gravestone reads
Steel true
Blade straight
Arthur Conan Doyle
Knight
Patriot, Physician and man of letters
Arthur Conan Doyle - A Concise Bibliography
Periodical Publications
Title Published On Published In
"The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley" October 1879 Chambers's Journal
"Gelseminum as a poison" 20 September 1879 British Medical Journal
"The American's Tale" 1879 London Society
"The Gully of Bluemansdyke" 1881 London Society
"Bones" 1882 London Society
"My Friend the Murderer" 1882 London Society
"J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" January 1884 Cornhill Magazine
"Life and Death in the Blood" 1884 Good Wordse
"Crabbe's Practice" 1884 The Boy's Own Paper
"The Fate of the Evangeline" 1885 The Boy's Own Paper
"A Psychologist's Wife" 1885 Blackwood's Magazine
"A Midshipman's Story" December 1885 Cassell's Magazine
"Cyprian Overbeck Wells, or A Literary Mosaic" 1886 The Boy's Own Paper
"Uncle Jeremy's Household" 1887 The Boy's Own Paper
"The Stone of Boxman's Drift" 1887 The Boy's Own Paper
"An Exciting Christmas Eve" 1887 The Boy's Own Paper
"John Huxford's Hiatus" June 1888 Cornhill Magazine
"The Geographical Distribution of British Intellect" August 1888 The Nineteenth Century
"The Bravoes of Market Drayton" August 1889 Chambers's Journal
"The Ring of Thoth" January 1890 Cornhill Magazine
"The Surgeon of Gaster Fell" December 1890 Chambers's Journal
"The Duello in France" December 1890 Cornhill Magazine
"The White Company" Jan –Dec 1891 Cornhill Magazine
"The Voice of Science" March 1891 The Strand Magazine
"A Scandal in Bohemia" July 1891 The Strand Magazine
"The Red-Headed League" August 1891 The Strand Magazine
"A Case of Identity" September 1891 The Strand Magazine
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" October 1891 The Strand Magazine
"The Five Orange Pips" November 1891 The Strand Magazine
"The Man with the Twisted Lip" December 1891 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" January 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" February 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" March 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" April 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" May 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" June 1892 The Strand Magazine
"A Day with Dr Conan Doyle" August 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of Silver Blaze" December 1892 The Strand Magazine
"The Refugees" January – June 1893 Harper's Magazine
"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" January 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Yellow Face" February 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk" March 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" April 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" May 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Reigate Squire" June 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Green Flag" June 1893 The Pall Mall Magazine
"The Adventure of the Crooked Man" July 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Resident Patient" August 1893 The Strand Magazine
"Pennarby Mine" August 1893 The Pall Mall Magazine
"The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" September 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" Oct – Nov 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Final Problem" December 1893 The Strand Magazine
"The Stark Munro Letters" 1894–1895 The Idler
"The Lord of Chateau Noir" July 1894 The Strand Magazine
"The Medal of Brigadier Gerard" December 1894 The Strand Magazine
"The Alpine Pass on Ski" December 1894 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Held the King" April 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the King Held the Brigadier" May 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Slew the Brothers of Ajaccio" June 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom" July 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Took the Field Against the Marshal Millefleurs" Aug 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier was Tempted by the Devil" Sept 1895 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Played for a Kingdom" December 1895 The Strand Magazine
"Rodney Stone" Jan – Dec 1896 The Strand Magazine
"The Debut of Bombashi Joyce" January 1897 Punch
"The Life on a Greenland Whaler" January – June 1897 The Strand Magazine
"Uncle Barnac" January – March 1897 The Queen
"The Tragedy of the Korosko" May – December 1897 The Strand Magazine
"Cremona" January 1898 Cornhill Magazine
"The Groom's Story" April 1898 Cornhill Magazine
"The Story of the Beetle Hunter" June 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Man With the Watches" July 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Lost Special" August 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Sealed Room" September 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Black Doctor" October 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Club-Footed Grocer" November 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Brazilian Cat" December 1898 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Japanned Box" January 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Jew's Breast-Plate" February 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of B.24" March 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Latin Tutor" April 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of the Brown Hand" May 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Croxley Master" Oct – Dec 1899 The Strand Magazine
"The Crime of the Brigadier" January 1900 The Strand Magazine
"Hilda Wade, 11" January 1900 The Strand Magazine
"Hilda Wade, 12" February 1900 The Strand Magazine
"Playing with Fire" March 1900 The Strand Magazine
"A Glimpse of the Army" September 1900 The Strand Magazine
"Some Military Lessons of the War" October 1900 Cornhill Magazine
"The Military Lessons of the War, a Rejoinder" January 1901 Cornhill Magazine
"The Holocaust of Manor Place" March 1901 The Strand Magazine
"The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker" April 1901 The Strand Magazine
"The Debatable Case of Mrs Emsley" May 1901 The Strand Magazine
"A British Commando" June 1901 The Strand Magazine
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" Aug 1901 – April 1902 The Strand Magazine
"How Brigadier Gerard Lost an Ear" August The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Saved the Army" November 1902 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigadier Rose to Minsk" December 1902 The Strand Magazine
"Brigadier Gerard at Waterloo" Jan – Feb 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Brigadier in England" March 1903 The Strand Magazine
"How the Brigidier Joined the Hussars at Conflans" April 1903 The Strand Magazine
"How Etienne Gerard Said Goodbye to his Master" May 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Leather Funnel" June 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Empty House" October 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" November 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Dancing Men" December 1903 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" January 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Priory School" February 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of Black Peter" March 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" April 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" May 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Three Students" June 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" July 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter" August 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" September 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Second Stain" December 1904 The Strand Magazine
"The Great Brown-Pericord Motor" January 1905 The Pictorial Magazine
"Sir Nigel" Dec 1905 – Dec 1906 The Strand Magazine
"An Incusion into Diplomacy" June 1906 Cornhill Magazine
"Through the Magic Door" Nov 1906 – Oct 1907 Cassell's Magazine
"The Pot of Caviare" March 1908 The Strand Magazine
"The Silver Mirror" August 1908 The Strand Magazine
"The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" Sept 1908 The Strand Magazine
"The Tiger of San Pedro" October 1908 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" December 1908 The Strand Magazine
"Shakespeare's Expostulation" March 1909 Cornhill Magazine
"Bendy's Sermon" April 1909 The Strand Magazine
"The Lord of Falcolnbridge" August 1909 The Strand Magazine
"Some Recollections of Sport" September 1909 The Strand Magazine
"The Homecoming" December 1909 The Strand Magazine
"The Terror of Blue John Gap" August 1910 The Strand Magazine
"The Marriage of the Brigadier" September 1910 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" December 1910 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Red Circle" March – April 1911 The Strand Magazine
"The Giant Maximin" July 1911 The Literary Pageant
"One Crowded Hour" August 1911 The Strand Magazine
"What Reform is Needed?" September 1911 The Strand Magazine
"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" December 1911 The Strand Magazine
"The Lost World" April – Nov 1912 The Strand Magazine
"The Fall of Lord Barrymore" December 1912 The Strand Magazine
"The Poison Belt" March – July 1913 The Strand Magazine
"England and the Next War" 1913 The Fortnightly Review
"How it Happened" September 1913 The Strand Magazine
"The Horror of the Heights" November 1913 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective December 1913 The Strand Magazine
"Essays Upon Phases of the Great War" 1914 The Fortnightly Review
"Danger!" July 1914 The Strand Magazine
"The Valley of Fear" Sept 1914 – May 1915 The Strand Magazine
"Western Wanderings" January – April 1915 Cornhill Magazine
"Sherlock Holmes Drawn by a Typewriter" August 1915 The Strand Magazine
"An Outing in War Time" October 1915 The Strand Magazine
"Stranger than Fiction" December 1915 The Strand Magazine
"The Prisoner's Defence" February 1916 The Strand Magazine
"The British Campaign in France" April – June 1917 The Strand Magazine
"Is Sir Oliver Lodge Right that the Dead Can Communicate?" July 1917 The Strand Magazine
"What Will England be Like in 1930?" August 1917 The Strand Magazine
"His Last Bow" September 1917 The Strand Magazine
"Some Personalia about Mr Sherlock Holmes" December 1917 The Strand Magazine
"Three of Them" April 1918 The Strand Magazine
"The Battle of the Somme" May – June 1918 The Strand Magazine
"Three of Them" July – August 1918 The Strand Magazine
"The British Campaign in France" Oct – Nov 1918 The Strand Magazine
"Three of Them" December 1918 The Strand Magazine
"The Battle of Cambrai" Jan – Feb 1919 The Strand Magazine
"Life After Death" March 1919 The Strand Magazine
"The Uncharted Coast" Dec 1919, Jan, May, Sept & Nov 1920 The Strand Magazine
"The Sideric Pendulum" August 1920 The Strand Magazine
"Faries Photographed" December 1920 The Strand Magazine
"The Evidence for Faries" March 1921 The Strand Magazine
"The Uncharted Coast" May 1921 The Strand Magazine
"Sherlock Holmes on the Film" July 1921 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" October 1921 The Strand Magazine
"The Bully of Brocas" November 1921 The Strand Magazine
"The Nightmare Room" December 1921 The Strand Magazine
"The Problem of Thor Bridge" Feb – March 1922 The Strand Magazine
"The Lift" June 1922 The Strand Magazine
"Now, Then Smith!" July 1922 The Strand Magazine
"Sherlock Holmes in Real Life" September 1922 The Strand Magazine
"A Point of Contact" October 1922 The Story-Teller
"Billy's Bones" December 1922 The Strand Magazine
"The Centurion" December 1922 The Story-Teller
"The Cottingley Faries" February 1923 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Creeping Man" March 1923 The Strand Magazine
"Haunting Dreams" April 1923 The Strand Magazine
"The Forbidden Subject" August 1923 The Strand Magazine
"Memories and Adventures" Oct 1923 – July 1924 The Strand Magazine
"How Our Novelists Write Their Books" December 1924 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" January 1925 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" Feb –March 1925 The Strand Magazine
"The Land of Mist" July 1925 – March 1926 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Three Gables" October 1926 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" November 1926 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" December 1926 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Retired Colourman" January 1927 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" February 1927 The Strand Magazine
"The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" April 1927 The Strand Magazine
"W.G. Grace—A Memory" July 1927 The Strand Magazine
"Houdini the Enigma" August – Sept 1927 The Strand Magazine
"The Maracot Deep" Oct 1927 – Feb 1928 The Strand Magazine
" When the World Screamed" April – May 1928 The Strand Magazine
"The Dreamers—Notes from a Strange Mail Bag" June 1928 The Strand Magazine
"The Story of Spedegue's Dropper" October 1928 The Strand Magazine
"The Disintegration Machine" January 1929 The Strand Magazine
"The Lord of the Dark Face" April – May 1929 The Strand Magazine
"The Death Voyage" October 1929 The Strand Magazine
Novels
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
Micah Clarke (1889)
The Mystery of Cloomber (1889)
The Sign of the Four (1890)
The Firm of Girdlestone (1890)
The White Company (1891)
The Doings of Raffles Haw (1891)
The Great Shadow (1892)
The Refugees (1893)
The Parasite (1894)
The Stark Munro Letters (1895)
Rodney Stone (1896)
Uncle Bernac (1897)
The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898)
A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
Sir Nigel (1906)
The Lost World (1912)
The Poison Belt (1913)
The Valley of Fear (1915)
The Land of Mist (1926)
The Maracot Deep (1929) Novel with three short stories
Short Story Collections
Mysteries and Adventures (1890)
The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (1890)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
The Gully of Bluemansdyke (1893)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
Round the Red Lamp: Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life (1894)
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896)
The Green Flag and Other Stories of War and Sport (1900)
The Adventures of Gerard (1903)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
Round the Fire Stories (1908)
The Last Galley (1911)
His Last Bow (1917)
Danger! and Other Stories (1918)
Three of Them (1923)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)
Stage works of Doyle
Jane Annie; or, The Good Conduct Prize (1893) Libretto to operetta, with J.M. Barrie; music by Ernest Ford
Foreign Policy (1893) Based on A Question of Diplomacy
The Story of Waterloo (1894) A one-act play written for Sir Henry Irving
Brothers (1899) Based on novel Halves by James Payn
Sherlock Holmes (1899) with William Gillette
A Duet (1902)
Brigadier Gerard (1906)
The Fires of Fate (1909)
The House of Temperley (1910)
A Pot of Caviare (1910)
The Speckled Band (1910)
The Crown Diamond (1921)
It's Time Something Happened (1925)
Exile: A Drama of Christmas Eve (1925)
The Journey
Poetry
Songs of Action (1898)
Songs of the Road (1911)
The Guards Came Through, and Other Poems (1919)
The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle: Collected Edition (1922)
Non Fiction
The Great Boer War (1900)
The War in South Africa – Its Cause and Conduct (1902)
Through the Magic Door (1907)
The Crime of the Congo (1909)
The Case of Oscar Slater (1912)
The German War: Some Sidelights and Reflections (1914)
A Visit to Three Fronts (1916)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders 1916–20
Memories and Adventures (1924)
Spiritualist and Paranormal Books
The New Revelation (1918)
The Vital Message (1919)
Verbatim Report of a Public Debate on 'The Truth of Spiritualism' between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph McCabe (1920)
The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921)
The Coming of the Fairies (1922)
The Case for Spirit Photography (1922)
Our American Adventure (1923)
Our Second American Adventure (1924)
The Spiritualist's Reader (1924)
The History of Spiritualism (1926)
Phineas Speaks (1927)
Our African Winter (1929)
The Edge of the Unknown (1930)
Pamphlets
A Full Report of a Lecture on Spiritualism Delivered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Connaught Hall, Worthing on Friday July 11th 1919 (1919) 11 pages
Our reply to the Cleric: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lecture in Leicester, October 19th 1919 (1920) 16 pages
Spiritualism and Rationalism (1920) 32 pages
The Early Christian Church and Modern Spiritualism (1925) 12 pages
Psychic Experiences (1925) 12 pages
A Word of Warning (1928) 19 pages
What Does Spiritualism Actually Teach and Stand For? (1928) 16 pages
The Roman Catholic Church: A Rejoinder (1929) 72 pages
An Open Letter to Those of My Generation (1929) 12 pages
The New Revelation (1997) 32 pages
